HIS Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade appreciated the 20 years of excellent work together in the Asean-India Dialogue and noted the presence of 10,000 Indian nationals living and working in the Sultanate who contribute to Brunei’s development.

His Royal Highness made the remark at the Post Ministerial Conference session with the Republic of India led by Salman Khurshid, its External Affairs Minister yesterday.

The Asean-India Dialogue relations were established in December 1995. Brunei Darussalam is the current country coordinator of the Asean-India Dialogue relations until mid 2015. The ‘Asean-India partnership progress and shared prosperity’ document was signed at the Asean-India Summit on November 30, 2004 in Vientiane, Lao PDR. It sets out the roadmap for a long-term Asean-India engagement.

In 2012, Asean-India relations commemorated the 20th anniversary of relations with the Asean-India Commemorative Summit held on December 20-21, 2012 in New Delhi, India.

The leaders adopted the ‘Asean-India vision statement for peace, progress and shared prosperity’ as well as elevated the Asean-India Dialogue relations to a strategic level. Other events included the Asean-India car rally, ministerial meetings for tourism, environment, agriculture as well as new and renewable energy.

In terms of trade and economic cooperation, volume of trade and investment flows between Asean and India still remains relatively low compared to other Asean dialogue partners. Total trade has shown an increase of 41.8 per cent from US$39.1 billion in 2009 to US$55.4 billion in 2010.

Meanwhile, Her Royal Highness Princess Hajah Masna, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, attended the Asean-Canada Ministerial Meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, John Baird. 2012 marked the 35th anniversary of Asean-Canada dialogue relations with a number of commemorative activities. At last year’s PMC session, Canada announced its support for Asean integration and connectivity projects through its contribution of $10 million Canadian Dollar fund for the next three years.

Asean-Canada cooperation is being implemented through the Asean-Canada Plan of Action to implement the joint declaration on Asean-Canada enhanced partnership 2010-2015. Good progress has been made in the areas of human rights, religious tolerance (interfaith dialogues), combating counter-terrorism and transnational crimes, and economic cooperation.

Activities under Asean-Canada Economic Cooperation include the establishment of Canada-Asean Business Council last year and the 1st Asean Economic Ministers-Canada consultation also last year which adopted the work plan to implement the Asean-Canada joint declaration on trade and investment. - Borneo Bulletin (2 July 2013)